One winter’s night, in the coal-hole in her yard, Rosie finds that a woman sheltering there has been severely beaten by thugs. At a glance, Kathleen looks like an unkempt, aged, vagabond who tramps the roads carrying all her worldly possessions in a grubby tapestry bag. Her only friend is a mangy old dog who accompanies her; the sum of her life is the diaries she so jealously guards. Yet close up, Rosie can see that Kathleen has a gracious beauty the ‘look’ of a respectable lady of means.

In hospital, fighting for her life, yet moved by Rosie’s care and compassion, Kathleen entrusts the diaries to her, urging her to look at them. There, in the soft glow of the lamp Rosie reads a heartrending tale of stolen dreams, true love, heartache and loss. A tale that somehow must have a happy ending.

Read by Carole Boyd

3 hours on 2 cassettes